|
Bonnie Glass
(Picture Not Available)
|
Stage Name |
Birth Name |
| Bonnie Glass |
n/a |
Bonnie Glass was another very talented and successful
dancer in vaudeville Theaters during the 1910s. Started her career as a Musical Comedy
soloist, she found she had a knack for dancing. Glass managed the popular Cafe Montmarte
club in New York in 1915 and would hire many dancers to dance with her in her shows at
the Cafe, sometimes these partnerships would last for months and others for the evening.
With the BF Keith's Palace Theater opening up to Vaudeville in 1913, she would soon headline
there. Glass would partner many future movie stars such as Clifton Webb (1914) and Valentino
(1915).
Glass spotted Webb at the already succesful
club dance at the Jardin de Danse in New York and seeked him for a dance partner. Webb
had a very long track record as a dancer but not in Ballroom and is reported that Glass
trained him. They became romantically involved as well as sharing some very successful
dance performances. They had a falling out and Webb opened a dance studio with his mother
and continued to perform.
|
|
Rudolpho
Valentino was a Taxi dancer at Maxim's where Glass performed and asked him to partner
with her on her tours. They were billed as "Bonnie Glass and Rudolpho" during
the 1915-1916 season. They had some success and failures as a dance team, but the cincher
for Bonnie was when Valentino was arrested for Black Mail (some say Burglary) which
ended the Glass-Valentino partnership in which she testifiedeven though Valentino was
found innocent. Bonnie Glass is said to have retired in 1917 probably due to some of her
Club and Keith's Vaudeville tours being reported as a failure, along with Valentino and
the huge success of Webb's studio. Valentino went on to dance with Joan
Sawyer.
During Glass's heyday, she would basically run the whole show at the
clubs, doing the choreography, costume design, set design if needed etc. Because of this
and her hiring her own partners, she would receive first billing which was unusual at
the time with the exceptions of Mae Murray,
Joan Sawyer and Glass, all three basically did the same thing. It is interesting to note
that these three ladies all worked at the Palace, Maxims
etc.
|
